Lions’ Buck back in the house as teammates ‘cue’ up for a ’Peg meat feast

METRO VANCOUVER — Being a man from a Great Plains state, Buck Pierce quickly embraced the city of Winnipeg, a community similar in style, outlook and ambience to his family’s roots in Hutchinson, Kansas.

“My parents are plains people,” the B.C. Lions quarterback said this week. “I still have a lot of relatives there (Kansas). You could say that Winnipeg wasn’t that foreign to me. It’s such a blue-collar environment out there. I come from generations of farmers on both my mother’s and my father’s side. It was easy for me to relate to people there. I was very comfortable.”

During his three-plus seasons as the face of the Blue Bombers, the 31-year-old Pierce became a fixture in the community, met his fiancée, Laurie, bought a home and started a business with partners Danny Kleinsasser and Brian Fawkes.

It’s why — as odd as it might seem to an effete observer from Lotusland — Pierce expressed his sadness at leaving Canada’s coldest intersection at Portage and Main when he was traded back to his former team, the Lions, on Sept. 8 for receiver Akeem Foster.

“I developed a lot friendships on the field and off during my time there,” said the man who clutched the river city and Friendly Manitoba to his heart whole hog.

Indeed, come Thursday night, Danny and Buck’s eatery and imbibery on Ellice Avenue will be a gathering spot for many Lions on the eve of their game Friday at Investors Group Field against the Blue Bombers.

It’s a barbecue house and sports lounge, which you might gather from its official and slightly unwieldy handle — Danny’s BBQ and Smokehouse and Buck’s Sports Lounge.

Kleinsasser, who grew up in a Hutterite community, is known as the king of barbecue in Manitoba. Danny’s Whole Hog, his corporate arm, provides thousands of meals at weddings, corporate events and backyard parties in the province throughout the summer.

“Buck grew up on a farm, I grew up on a farm,” Kleinsasser explained. “We’re from the same culture. When I first met Buck, we talked about football, home cooking and barbecue sauces. Friendships don’t happen overnight, but ours developed quickly. The main thing is, we both have our hearts in the community. We just hit it off.”

While the lounge host was missing from practice Wednesday with the flu, Pierce is expected to be on the Lions’ charter to Winnipeg Thursday to prepare for the team’s second game in five days.

Joey Elliott, another former Blue Bomber quarterback, was elevated to second-team reps in Pierce’s absence behind Thomas DeMarco, who again will start after his impressive performance last Sunday in Regina.

“Buck’s barbecue house is definitely the thing I’m looking forward to the most on this trip,” quipped DeMarco. “I want to see what the fuss is all about.”

On a more serious note, DeMarco said he’s unaware if he’ll be asked to go wire-to-wire or be spelled off by Pierce at some point against the Blue Bombers. In Sunday’s 24-22 win over the Roughriders, Pierce came in for two series in the second quarter. He drew a roughing-the-passer penalty on Roughrider defender Brian Peters, was sacked for a five-yard loss by Ricky Foley and completed two of three passes for 16 yards, leading to a Paul McCallum field goal.

“It was the first time I’ve taken this many reps since training camp,” said Elliott, who was released by the Lions in early September as a prelude to the acquisition of Pierce. “It was good to get back in there.”

Elliott unexpectedly found himself back in the Lions’ mix after starter Travis Lulay suffered a shoulder injury Sept. 15 against the Alouettes. “Come back, Joey, all is forgiven.”

With Lulay deemed off-limits to the football media until after the Winnipeg game (the extent of his injury will be reassessed at that time) his views on the state of barbecue — it’s a verb in Canada, but a noun in the U.S. — are unavailable.

Elliott, however, has sampled the seven different sauces at Danny and Buck’s place. He is one of only two Lions, including Winnipeg native Andrew Harris, who has been inside the establishment and can recommend to John Catucci, “You gotta eat here.”

Elliott said Buck’s compares favourably with Shyler’s Bar-b-q in his hometown of Evansville, Ind.

“If you’re ever driving down 41 South, stop at Shyler’s for sure,” Elliott said. “During training camp (with the Blue Bombers), Buck always took the quarterbacks to his place for lunch. There was a wide variety of choices on the menu.”

Variety may be the spice of life, but a single main option is the preferred choice when it comes to quarterbacking.

The 2-10 Blue Bombers, still searching for one with meat in his game, discarded Elliott and Alex Brink like a pair of chewed-up rib bones, traded Pierce, anointed then demoted Justin Goltz and now have half-heartedly put their faith in flavour of the week Max Hall, who gets the start Friday.

“It hasn’t changed much there since I left,” Elliott said. “It’s a difficult situation for a quarterback. Switching quarterbacks, switching coaches, switching offensive coordinators, you’re not going to have any consistency at that position.”

It’s a scrambled recipe that should allow the Lions to feast in the ’Peg — on at least two occasions this week.

END ZONE: WR Emmanuel Arceneaux (groin) had a setback at practice Wednesday and will be re-elevated Thursday before it is determined if he will make the trip to Winnipeg. Ernest Jackson took Arceneaux’s spot last Sunday against the Roughriders ... WR Marco Iannuzzi (ankle) is also in the dubious category, setting up the possibility of a rare start for Swiss army knife receiver Paris Jackson.

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